Well this is just a simple song
To say what you done
I told you about all those fears
And away they did run
You sure must be strong
And you feel like an ocean
Being warmed by the sun
-The Shins
To him she was like a dream. Or an unwritten vignette. Or the lyrics of a senseless composition. When he looked at her he saw something bigger than time itself. He saw something with no boundaries. Something timeless. With her the sky was the limit and life seemed to come in to focus- with her he had a destination.
She glared at him, her brown eyes spelling out impatience through her long, black eyelashes. Nobody does black like Dior, "So Bass are you just going to stare at me or are we going to actually do something. I am not one to skip school for just anything. This day better surpass even my high expectations."
Her comment broke the glass that separated him from the rest of the world because for a second he was somewhere else entirely somewhere where fireworks trump fate and beauty underlies nostalgia, but then he looked up at her and gave a sharp laugh and said, "Waldorf if you were always this ready it would be hard for me to ever resist you."
She laughed, "Like you ever can."
"You speak the truth. I find you uncannily irresistible. Oh and Waldorf just so you know today will surpass even your most wild dreams. It will be the crème Del a crème of the perfect day."
"The crème Del a crème? Bass you are setting quite high standards even for you. I better not be disappointed."
"Oh you won't be I can guarantee it. Now let's go so much to do in such little time."
"Where is Arthur? I hope you not expecting me to walk are you?"
"Waldorf today is about trying new things. I can assume the perfect date with Nathaniel involved a limo to the most esteemed, beautiful restaurant in Manhattan, then dancing with only the most high class of patrons, to a boat ride around the city where passerbyers would serenade you and you would share a strictly PG kiss under the stars. I suppose that is on par?"
She bit her lip and said, "Well you forgot the part about the chocolate fountain and the live entertainment at the restaurant…"
He raised his eyebrows, gave his signature smirk and said, "And if it couldn't have gotten any more classic Princess Diaries there we have it."
She hit him on the arm, "Okay I see your point, you are not Nate. But seriously what are we doing?"
"You will find out in due time Waldorf, but for now we walk." He pulled her arm and gestured towards the street before him, and whispered in her ear, "Manhattan beckons us."
She felt the chill from his touch overcome her and it felt like everything was on fire, "Well we shouldn't keep it waiting then should we?"
"No that would be imprudent now wouldn't it?" Before she could respond he reached for her hand and pulled her next to him and started to walk away from the school in the direction of something else entirely.
"Now Waldorf tell me something. Something I don't know about you. Anything."
She looked at him surprise written in the contours of her face, "Bass you never cease to shock me. Now anything? Don't laugh, but I suppose I have always wanted to be a dancer."
"A dancer?"
Blush creeped up her neck and onto the smooth skin of her cheeks, "I know it's really stupid, but… dancers are just so mysterious. I guess I have always wanted that."
"I think you would be a beautiful dancer." He looked so serious and his eyes betrayed him. She saw the devotion beneath them and she wondered why she would have ever thought he would laugh.
"No innuendo? Bass I think your losing it."
He looked at her as if deciding which way to proceed and with careful precision he said, "Not today."
She then looked up and as if a spell had been broken or a trance had ended she realized that they were in front of the Palace Hotel.
"The Palace? I am pretty sure we could go here any day. I was promised a day of enchantment and I intend to get it."
"Waldorf for once in your life just relax and live life in the moment. I promised you a day of grandeur and you will get it. Mark my words."
She looked haughty after his declaration, but she could not help but smile just a little, "Well are we going to ever go inside?"
He rolled his eyes at her and said, "After you then."
They were then in the beautiful lobby of the Palace, a place where people would give up thousands to simply spend a night in. A place where dreams come true, fantasies come to life and time seems infinite. To Chuck it was a makeshift house, a refuge perhaps, but never quite a home. He lived in the Palace, but he never had the luxury of home cooked meals, family dinners, slept in sheets, or a home where people had really lived.
He then whispered in her ear, "Follow me." They then ran through the lobby as people watched in utter surprise as Manhattan's playboy held the hand of one Blair Waldorf, Manhattan's virgin queen. He knew all the secrets of the Palace and he skillfully ran down the stairwell with Blair in tow and inputted the passcode they needed to gain access into the Palace food storage room.
He smiled at her and lazily said, "Pick whatever you want."
There were rows and rows of the most expensive liquor known to man, vintage wines, coveted champagne, and aged scotch. There was such lavish food, ranging from a decadent chocolate cake with rose petal frosting to the most delectable caviar to chocolate truffles.
After much deliberation they selected a bottle of champagne, two cakes: chocolate and vanilla, strawberries and homemade whipped cream, and éclairs. The champagne alone was expensive enough to beat out an average American's yearly income.
She gave him a look of utter complementation and said, "Now what, are we going to eat in here?"
He looked at her and said, "Of course not we are not that trashy."
She laughed, "Well we did just steal a $70,000 bottle of champagne and we walked here. How much lower can you really get?"
"Oh Waldorf you really have seen nothing yet if you think that's lowly. How Upper East Side of you."
"Born and raised thank you very much."
"Waldorf you never cease to amuse me."
He then looked at her as if he was seeing her for the first time, and slowly, but surely he leaned in to make her feel for him what he felt for her. Two heartbeats became one as their lips met in a kiss that made flames dance on the surface of an icy pool of water. However, as quickly as the kiss started it ended. The sound of footsteps echoed on the metal floor of the storage room. They knew they had only seconds before the person would round the corner and spot them.
They shared a knowing look and hastily put all the food they had uncovered in an icebox and Chuck grabbed the bottle of champagne and Blair's hand and tore out through the back door of the storage room and down the stairs once again.
They had now reached the bottom floor of the Palace, where no one really ventured unless they were looking for some forlorn object to add to the Palace's elaborate Christmas motif or an extra chair for the grand dining room. It was a Jerusalem for lost objects and misfits. In the far corner of the expansive room there was a piano that had long lost its state of grandeur. Blair could almost imagine a 1920s musical prodigy sitting at it playing a rendition of Beethoven's 9th. There were stacks of books ranging from Shakespeare to Stephen King. There were toys that had long since been abandoned. There was a worn arm chair that looked like someone had spent a considerable amount of time lounging in it. There was something about this room that Blair could not place. It had a certain beauty to it, and the further she ventured in to it the more mystified she felt.
He came up behind her and put his hand on her shoulder. She reached behind her and put her hand over his. For some reason the gesture felt so much more intimate then sex. It bound them together in more ways than one.
She smiled at him then, not a smile she reserved for her minions or socialites or her mother, a real smile reserved for him.
He looked at her and questioned, "Are not you going to ask me where we are?"
"A little mystery never hurt anyone."
He laughed and said, "This is where I go when I need to be alone. Through thick and thin this is here. When people leave this stays. It's a constant for someone like me."
"I will stay if you will let me."
His heart beat fast in his chest, fear began to encompass his senses, but underneath that fear was something else, something foreign to him. He knew he was too far in to let her go and maybe just maybe she would stay and as brown eyes met hazel, he murmured in to her hair, "Do you mean that?"
She nodded, "I promise. Now you know you're not the only person who has a place like this?"
He saw her vulnerability mirrored in his own eyes, "Where is your place?"
"Underneath the stairs in my penthouse there is a door that leads to an empty closet. When I was a little girl and my parents would fight I would go in there and just think. I still do sometimes." She was taken back to a world of innocence and dolls and where her only real worries were her parents and if Nate would be her boyfriend. When did things become so screwed up?
He looked into her eyes and said almost to himself, "I will never leave you either." She nodded her head and met the intensity of his gaze and clasped his hand.
She then asked him, "Now tell me something about you. Anything."
"I have always wanted to be a pianist."
"Like a concert pianist?"
"Yes."
She turned her brown eyes to the piano in the corner of the room and with a stroke of inspiration she said, "Will you play for me?"
"I have never played in front of anyone before."
"Please?"
He could not deny her anything and he slowly nodded his head and began to walk towards the piano. Together they sat down on the piano bench. As he began to play he reformed in Blair's mind to that 1920's pianist she had pictured when she walked in to the room. He played beautifully, lyrically, unconditionally. He leaned over and whispered in her ear the most singularly beautiful word she may have ever heard in her entire life.
"Dance."
And so she did.
She moved through the air like the wind and Chuck knew at that moment that Blair Waldorf was made to dance. He knew it at Victrola and he knew it now she was something else entirely. Something amazing.
When the song ended Chuck stood up and made his way over to where Blair stood looking in the distance at something that was not there. He opened the bottle of champagne and took a swig, he gave it to her and she brought it to her lips and drank until she was gasping for air. He laughed at her as she swooned on the spot. They then sat down and gorged themselves on cakes as they continuously passed the bottle of champagne from one to the other. Laughing at what the site must look like and talking, just talking. When the champagne was long gone and the last morsels of food had been devoured Chuck stood up and Blair held out her hand and he helped her up.
"Always the gentleman," she remarked.
"Not always, especially not with you."
"You're right Bass, you meant especially with me."
He laughed at how true her statement was. She then grabbed his hand and began to run up the stairs until they were outside the doors of the ballroom.
"Waldorf what are we doing?"
"I don't know what do you want to do?"
"With you? Anything."
She peered inside and gasped as the realization hit her, "Tonight is the Snowflake Ball. How could we forget? I mean I was on the committee I practically put together the whole thing."
"You're always so modest Waldorf, one of the many things I adore about you."
"Oh shut up Bass, well I suppose we should get dressed and go."
"Or we could ditch it completely and do something more appropriate for people on our level of social status."
"As in get rip roaring drunk and paint the town."
"Waldorf you know me so well."
"I really need to get out of this uniform though… as do you."
"Waldorf if you really wanted to get out of that uniform all you needed to do was ask. I would be happy to oblige."
"Bass you know what I mean."
"I do indeed. Now as for the clothes we will figure that out as we go. Now let us go, my limo awaits us."
"Your limo?"
"How else do you expect us to get around?"
"Oh I don't know we could walk," she mocked him.
"At night? Waldorf that doesn't seem very conventional."
"As if it is during the day."
"Waldorf there is so much to teach you."
"Are you up to the challenge?" She questioned as they walked out of the Plaza and into the pouring rain.
He looked at her and smiled a real smile that reached his eyes.
"For you Waldorf always."
And with that he took her hand and pulled her into his arms for an earth shattering kiss, and even as the rain poured down and a camera flashed neither of them stopped or let up.
Sometimes hours can feel like minutes and sometimes a single second can last a lifetime. For Chuck, the second that would never end was this one.
A/N
Hi guys! So this chapter took me forever to write. Now I am really happy with the way this chapter came out so please tell me what you think and also I took the last line from How I Met Your Mother, which I strongly recommend you watch because it is a fantastic show. Anyways please review, review, review. Before I continue I want to make sure people are actually reading this story. So again review and tell me if you have any ideas! Love xoxo Kat